Cigarettes



Nov. 12, 1968 A. c. DAVIS 3,410,274

CIGARETTES Filed Feb. 24, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A. C. DAVIS Nov. 12, 1968 CIGARETTES Filed Feb.

2 SheetsSheet 2 United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A cigarette having highly permeable areas formed in an otherwise impermeable band covering the joint between the tobacco portion and the stub portion of the cigarette so that as smoke is drawn through the stub air enters the joint through the highly permeable portions. The extent to which the permeable areas cover the joint and the degree of permeability of the areas determines the amount of air drawn in through the joint.

This invention relates to cigarettes of the kind comprising a tobacco portion encased in paper, and a stub portion, joined together in abutting relation by a band that encircles at least a portion of both the tobacco portion and stub, and is adhesively secured thereto, to provide a composite cigarette. It also relates to cigars or cigarillos manufactured in a similar manner. Such cigarettes, cigars or cigarillos are hereinafter referred to as cigarettes of the kind described.

In such a composite cigarette a narrow strip of the encircling band coincides with the butt joint between the tobacco portion and the stub. Hereinafter in this specification said narrow strip is referred to as the line corresponding to the butt joint between the tobacco portion and stub.

The stub portion may be constituted by any of the well known materials, e.g. crimped paper, cellulose acetate, tobacco, or a hollow mouthpiece, or a composite stub comprising say a section of activated charcoal and a section of crimped paper, and the stub or composite stub itself may be secured within a paper, or like, sheath.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a cigarette of the kind described wherein means are provided to permit air to be drawn into the cigarette adjacent the stub.

The present invention consists in a cigarette of the kind described, wherein the encircling band comprises a band of substantially impermeable material that is rendered highly permeable at an area or areas on or a continuous area along the line corresponding to the butt joint between the tobacco portion and stub of the composite cigarette, whereby air may be drawn in through said line, the volume of said air being controlled by the permeability of the band where it is highly permeable in conjunction with the extent of the periphery of the butt joint that is disposed behind said area or areas.

It is to be understood that in the present specification the word areas has been used to indicate that the highly permeable portions are not mere pin-holes. This is an important aspect of the present invention since air will only enter at the line corresponding to the butt joint between the tobacco and stub portions, and, if the highly permeable portions were mere pin-holes, the placing of these would become critical. The present invention, however, by utilizing permeable areas, allows for some degree of variance in the location of the permeable portions with respect to the butt joint line, and still provide a sufiicient area of the highly-permeable material to overlie the butt joint line to insure an adequate amount of air being taken in.

The encircling band containing the highly-permeable areas may comprise a web of highly permeable material secured to a Web of less permeable material, the latter being perforated at one or more areas along the line corresponding to the butt joint between the tobacco portion and stub of the composite cigarette, thus rendering the band highly permeable at said area or areas whereby air may be drawn in through said line, the volume of said air being controlled by the permeability of the band at said area or areas in conjunction with the extent of the periphery of the butt joint that is disposed behind it or them.

The web of less and highly permeable material may encircle the whole length of the stub.

In an alternative the web of less permeable material may encircle the whole length of the stub with the web of highly permeable material secured near one edge thereof so that the latter is secured only adjacent the perforations.

In a further modification the highly and less permeable material is secured to the cigarette and stub as a narrow band.

According to a modification the encircling band may comprise a band of substantially impermeable material that is rendered highly permeable at an area or areas on or a continuous area along the line corresponding to the butt joint between the tobacco portion and stub of the composite cigarette by thinning the material of the band at said area or areas.

The material may be thinned by shaving material off a surface of the band.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a cigarette joined to a stub with an encircling band comprising a narrow web of highly permeable material secured to a narrow web of less permeable material.

FIG. 2 shows a cigarette joined to a stub with an encircling band comprising a wide web of highly permeable material secured to a wide web of less permeable material.

FIG. 3 shows a cigarette joined to a stub with an encircling band comprising a narrow web of highly permeable material secured along one edge of a wide web of less permeable material, said wide web extending to the end of the stub.

In FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 the composite webs of highly and less permeable materials are shown curled back in places to illustrate the construction.

FIGS. 4 to 6 are examples of different patterns of perforations that may in some instances be preferred.

Referring first to FIG. 2, the normal method of manufacturing a cigarette as shown is to roll two cigarettes, with an intervening double length stub, in a gummed double length encircling band, and then cut the stub through the encircling band at its mid point thus providing two single composite cigarettes each comprising a cigarette 1, a stub 2 and an encircling band 3. The stub may be ensheathed in its own paper sleeve 4. 5 is the butt joint between cigarette and stub.

It is generally considered desirable to be able to provide means for drawing in air with the smoke of a cigarette, in order to reduce the tar passing through it and many suggestions have been made concerning perforating a cigarette or stub with this object in view. Hitherto one of the chief difficulties encountered in reducing and controlling tar is to maintain control of the amount of extra air drawn in. In accordance with the present invention the encircling band for joining a stub and cigarette together is constructed in the following manner, so as to maintain control of air intake and tar reduction.

A Web 3 of substantially impermeable paper, for example the well known imitation cork tipping material, is apertured at one or more areas with circular perforations 6, e.g. perforations of about 2 mm, diameter spaced at a convenient distance apart so as to provide, say four perforations around the circumference of a cigarette at equal distances. The line on which the perforations are made is the line corresponding to the butt joint between the tobacco portion and stub, i.e. it is such that in the finished composite cigarette the perforations lie with their diameters coincident with the butt joint between the tobacco portion 1 and stub 2.

For convenience in manufacture, a web of, say, cork tipping material is perforated as above described before slitting into widths suitable for joining two cigarettes together. For example the web may be wide enough to be subsequently slit into say fifteen double length encircling bands.

This impermeable web is preferably pre-gummed with an adhesive that becomes tacky when moistened. The web thus perforated is then moistened and laminated to a similar web of highly permeable paper.

It will be appreciated that by this laminated construction the volume of air that is drawn in with each puff of a cigarette through the areas at which the web 3 is perforated, is controlled by the permeability of the highly permeable web 7 at said areas in conjunction with the extent of the periphery of the butt joint 5 that is disposed behind the perforations.

In the event that a paper manufacturer cannot provide a paper of a given degree of permeability, he can at any rate provide paper of a substantially constant permeability.

It is then only necessary to test a batch of cigarettes to ascertain the volume of air drawn in per pull, and assum ing too much is drawn in, then the line of perforations can be offset somewhat from the butt joint to cover a greater length of the said joint and so reduce air intake. If too little is drawn in then perforations larger in diameter may be provided. Thus is seen a major advantage found in the present invention, i.e., the use of highly-permeable areas instead of pin-holes. The use of such areas allows greater flexibility in the location of them and still provides an adequate portion of the highly permeable material overlying the butt joint line. Furthermore, the amount of air drawn in may be more readily varied with the use of highly permeable areas since the total amount of the highly permeable portions overlying the butt joint line can be more easily varied merely by shifting the areas. If pinholes were employed, a shift would probably remove all of the highly permeable material from communication with the butt joint line thus preventing any air from entering. Areas of different sizes and shapes can also provide these advantages as is explained below.

It has been found convenient to perforate the less permeable web on a perforating machine, that is to say a machine in which the paper web is moved between circular pegs carried in and protruding slightly from a rotating cylindrical arbor, and a high speed cylindrical cutting head that acts to shave oif material from the web coincident with the pegs.

In an alternative arrangement for varying the control of air intake, pegs shaped to produce perforations as illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 6, which for convenience can be referred to as lozenge shaped, may be used.

Thus, referring to FIG. 4, which shows a web of highly permeable paper 7 laminated to a web of lesser permeable paper 3, the perforations 6 are made by pegs which are 3 mm. diameter ground on both sides to provide two parallel flats 8 and 9, two mm. apart.

If the perforations are then arranged around the cigarette parallel as shown in FIG. 4, then four times 2 mm. of the length of periphery of the butt joint is exposed through the highly permeable paper. This shape of perforation allows for the case when the perforations become slightly offset from the jointif circular they will shorten the length of periphery exposed, but if lozenge shaped as shown, a slight offsetting does not alter the length exposed.

While a greater length of the periphery of the joint behind the highly permeable paper can be provided by perforating larger holes, e.g. 3 mm. diameter, if four lozenge shaped pegs are turned through an angle of 37, perforations as shown in FIG. 5 will result, whereby the length of the periphery of the butt joint exposed through the highly permeable paper is increased by 25% for the four perforations, increasing the air intake by a like amount.

If the pegs are turned through an angle of from 60 to perforations as shown in FIG. 6 will result. In this case the length of periphery for each perforation is 3 mm., resulting in an increase of 50% for four perforations.

Naturally any shape, number, combination or angular relation of perforation may be used, but the use of a lozenge shape as shown conveniently permits controlled variation of extent of the length of periphery exposed through the highly permeable paper, without unduly weakening the joining band.

As previously mentioned, in practice the joining band is made double the width of those shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 and is perforated close to both edges. The mid lines of the gaps between the sets of four perforations illustrated are the positions at which the web is cut to join two cigarettes and an intermediate double length stub and the double length web is subsequently cut midway of its width to provide two composite cigarettes.

The only difference between FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 is that the encircling hand does not extend to the end of the stub, while in FIG. 3 the web 3 of less permeable material encircles the whole length of the stub 2 and the web of highly permeable paper 7 is secured near the edge of the web 3 that encircles the butt joint 5.

Normally when joining two cigarettes with an intervening stub by an encircling band, the majority of the inside surface of the band is gummed by leading it across a gumming roller whose periphery is ground down to provide a shallow reservoir containing the gum. The word majority above is used because the reservoir does not usually extend right to the mouth end 10 (see FIGS. 1, 4 and 5) of the band to avoid gum on the band where the knife severs the double length stub to provide two cigarettes.

When using an encircling band as above described, it is desirable in the second gumming operation, i.e. to secure the band to the tobacco portion and stub, to avoid applying gum to the inner surface of the highly permeable web at positions too near the perforations so that permeability at the perforations is unaffected 'by the adhesive.

Chain lines 16 and 116 and dotted lines 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 have been superimposed on FIG. 4 to assist in indicating the extent of the gumless areas found suitable. The chain lines 16 and 116 indicate where the individual laminated encircling bands 3 and 7 are severed. The narrow strip between line 10 and dotted line 11 is a gumless area. The other gumless area is bounded by the lines 12, 13, 14 and 15. The area between lines 13 and 16, but extended across the width of the encircling band, illustrates the extent of the overlap of the ends of the encircling band when the composite cigarette has been completed.

It should be explained that the periphery of the gum ming roller corresponds to a multiple of the area be tween the lines 16 and 116 and of double width, symmetrical about the line 10. The periphery is patterned by machining it to provide a shallow reservoir for gum except at the areas bounded by lines 10 and 11, and 12, 13, 14 and 15.

To improve the security of the adhesion of the tobacco portion and the stub to the encircling band, additional gummed areas 17, 18 and 19 may be provided as illus trated in FIG. 5.

It will be appreciated that although four perforations are shown in the FIGS. 1 to 6, the number and shape may be varied to suit any particular requirement.

According to a modification, instead of securing highly permeable and less permeable material together, the latter being perforated, substantially impermeable material alone is used. In this case material is shaved off the surface of substantially impermeable material to thin it at one or more areas along the line that corresponds with the butt joint between the tobacco portion and stub of the composite cigarette, thus rendering it highly permeable at said areas.

In this respect it should be explained that a perforating machine as hereinbefore described can be set so as to completely perforate a web at spaced positions or it may be set so as to shave material off the surface at spaced intervals, thus rendering the material more permeable at said positions according to the thickness of material shaved 01f.

In other respects the considerations in this modification as to shape, size, angular relation and number of highly permeable areas, apply in a similar manner to the case, hereinbefore described, where highly permeable material is secured to lesser permeable material, the latter being perforated.

If pre-gummed substantially impermeable material is used, material may be shaved from the gummed surface or the surface that becomes the outer surface, while if a non pre-gummed material is used, it is desirable to avoid applying adhesive to the inner surface at positions too near the shaved portions. This of course is avoided in a similar manner to that previously described, i.e. by using a patterned gumming roller.

In this modification, instead of shaving the line that corresponds to the 'butt joint between the tobacco portion and stub of the composite cigarette at one or more areas, the line may be thinned continuously by shaving a surface to provide an area, all around the butt joint, that is thinned and is thus highly permeable.

These modifications in which substantially impermeable paper is thinned to provide a highly permeable area, areas or continuous area are not illustrated in the drawings because modifications of the drawings would be so slight since it is only necessary to omit the highly permeable material 7 and to explain that the perforations 6 are not complete perforations but comprise thinned areas.

What is claimed is:

1. A cigarette comprising a Wrapped charge of tobacco and a filter stub, the stub having first and second ends open to permit the passage of air and smoke and having an outer surface between the said ends, an end of the said wrapped charge of tobacco abutting an end of the said stub to form a joint so that smoke may be drawn through the tobacco and then through the stub, a band secured to both the Wrapped charge of tobacco and the said outer surface of the stub and extending across the said joint so as to completely cover the joint and so as to cover a measurable portion of the wrapped charge of tobacco and the said outer surface of the stub to connect together the Wrapped charge of tobacco and the stub, said band being substantially impermeable to air except that the portion of the band covering the joint has at least one area which is permeable to air, thereby permitting a controlled and limited passage of air through the permeable area into the joint between the wrapped charge of tobacco and the stub, the said area being of a size which is observable with the naked eye so that slight shifting of the band in a direction parallel to the axis of the cigarette is possible while the said permeable area still overlies the said joint, said band comprising a substantially impermeable layer, and said permeable area comprising at least one opening in the substantially impermeable layer of the band and a highly permeable layer immediately beneath the substantially impermeable layer secured over both the stub and the charge of tobacco and underlying the said openings, whereby air may be drawn through the said openings and through the said highly permeable layer, the amount of said air being determined by the amount of the circumference of the joint which the opening and the highly permeable layer cover and the degree of permeability of the highly permeable layer.

2. A cigarette according to claim 1 wherein the said substantially impermeable layer of the band extends to the end of the stub remote from the joint.

3. A cigarette comprising a Wrapped charge of tobacco and a paper wrapped filter plug, the said plug being in abutment with the downstream end of the tobacco charge to form a butt joint, a first band of paper secured over both the wrapped tobacco charge and the wrapped filter plug, the said band extending a measurable distance upstream and downstream from the butt joint, a second band of the same size as the first band and disposed therearound thus covering the same extent of Wrapped tobacco charge and filter plug, the first band being constituted of highly permeable material, the second band being constituted of substantially impermeable material and being provided with a plurality of relatively large perforations so located as to at least partially cover the butt joint, the perforations and underlying highly permeable material determining the amount of air and insuring the passage thereof into the butt joint between the plug and the wrapped cigarette charge.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS MELVIN D. REIN, Primary Examiner. 

